3. Combs.: (1) groanin maut, ale brewed to celebrate a birth. Cf. Eng. groaning beer, -drink, id.; (2) maut ale, ale brewed from malt; (3) maut-barn, a building where malt is prepared; (4) maut-bree, malt liquor. See Bree; (5) malt dub, a pond used for steeping malt; (6) mawt-kaesie, a basket for holding malt. See Kishie; (7) mautman, a maltman, a maltster (Cai., ne.Sc., Lth. 1962); (8) maut-siller, money paid for malt, specif. as an excise duty on its production. Freq. fig. in proverbial expressions (see quot.); (9) malt-stead, -steading, a building where malt is prepared. See Stead; (10) malt whisky, a whisky distilled from malted barley in a pot-still as opposed to a blended grain whisky.
(1)Ayr. a.1790 BurnsThe Rantin Dog ii.: O, wha will buy the groanin maut? . . . The rantin dog, the daddie o't!Sc. 1815 ScottGuy M. iii.: Meg Merrilies descended to the kitchen to secure her share of the groaning malt.(2)Abd. 1922 Weekly Free Press (7 Jan.): And Jean had produced a brew of “maut ale” that verily made “the lugs crack”.(3)Sc. 1753 W. MaitlandHist. Edb. 151: Malt-barns, Breweries [etc.].Sc. 1761 Magopico 25: Were churches to want steeples, the kirk might be taken for . . . the malt-barn, or the ale-house.Fif. 1896 D. S. MeldrumGrey Mantle 115: He was coming from mending the coke-fire at his maut barns.(4)Abd. 1746 W. ForbesDominie Depos'd (1765) 32: He [Bacchus] drowned all my cares to preach With his maut-bree.(5)Kcb. 1743 Kcb. Testaments MS. (14 Oct.): The little strand called the Seggiesyke strand or burn running down to the malt dubb on the west.(6)Ork. 1905 Orcadian Papers (Charleson) 38: As a miel of malt was larger than a miel of bere, those [straw-baskets] intended for holding malt were called mawt-kaesies.(7)Lnk. 1816 G. MuirCld. Minstrelsy 8: Skinners an' ma'tmen, slaters, candle-makers.Gall. 1824 MacTaggartGallov. Encycl. 338: Maltmen had always good ale about them, so were merry; hence arose the phrase, “as merry's a mautman”.Bwk. 1856 G. HendersonPop. Rhymes 60: Sandy Pae, the mautman, Is drinkin' wi' the sautman.Ayr. 1870 J. K. HunterLife Studies 275: The rain may do gude itherwise, but it 'ill no pay the mautman.Cai. 1916 J. MowatCai. Proverbs 6: E warst time 'at oor wis, 'e maatman should get his keizie.(8)Sc. 1825 Jam.: “That's ill-paid maut-siller”; a proverbial phrase signifying, that a benefit has been ill requited. . . . “Weel! ye've gotten your maut-siller, I think”; uttered as the language of ridicule, to one who may have been vain of some new scheme that has proved unsuccessful.(9)Sc. 1747 Caled. Mercury (28 Jan.): That Tenement of Land, Barns and Maltsteads, consisting of 14 Roods of Land, lying in the Town of Innerlevin.Fif. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 XIII. 125: The malt and brew steadings . . . became useless, and soon fell into ruin.(10)Edb. 1812 W. GlassCaled. Parnassus 14: Faith, mony a turn baith hard and sair 's Been dune on gude Maut Whisky O.Sc. 1888 Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.) XXIV. 542: Malt whisky is the product of malted barley alone, distilled in the ordinary pot-still.Sc. 1930 A. MacDonaldWhisky 66: The old single malt whiskies of the Highlands were, on the whole, too powerful and heavy for sedentary town-dwellers.Sc. 1958 J. LaverHouse of Haig 44: About the middle of the nineteenth century, experiments began to be made by mixing different malt whiskies, older with younger, and more strongly flavoured with softer kinds in an endeavour to produce a blend which would be acceptable to all palates.